Audience research

Primary and Secondary audience research 

The genre of music I am most inspired to make a music video around is acoustic/folk.
The first research I decided to do was to find out which age group would be the best to target this genre of video to.

This is a survey I created and asked ages of people 16-18 of what music video they watched the most. No one in this age group voted for acoustic music videos. Therefore I think I need to target my video to an older demographic.

Based on Spotify's data, the biggest listeners of this genre are aged 18-24. These videos are also very different than to common conventions of pop videos, which include lots of dance/provocative scenes, which are targeted to a younger audience.

For an older demographic, there needs to be more emphasis on performance and the lyrics as they seem to be more interested in the music, as this is the age who tend to view videos representing this.

When asking the same age group of what type of music videos there was no clear preference between performance and a mix between types.

This suggests that a preference of music video style doesn't depend on the age group but more on personal opinion.

However, the fact that a lot of them were interested in viewing performance videos is positive as the majority of acoustic videos do have a performance element. This suggests that this genre of music may also appeal to this age range if the conventions in the video were used to gain their interest, leading to a wider demographic for my video.

An example of a younger age range being drawn in to acoustic and folk music (even though this demographic usually prefer Pop and R&B) is Ed Sheeran.
Statistics show that his main target audience is form 14-25. This is very wide an his videos have such a wide range of people viewing them as although they are mature with the themes, he also draws in a younger demographic by using performance scenes which make them feel connected to the star in the video.
This is something I should incorporate in my video if I want to also appeal to 16-18 as well as 18-24.

 Pop music is one of the most popular with the age group of 16-18 so I thought it is important to know what they look for, in order to have inspiration that would interest this demographic group in an acoustic music video.

Information from Spotify and Echo nest, show that young people aged 13-15 almost exclusively listen to pop music and mainly music in the Top 40 or the Spotify charts. This means that 13-15 may be too young of an age to target with a new genre.

However, this study also shows that by late 15-16, many people's music taste starts to mature and they expand their diversity. This means that involving familiar conventions from pop music videos in mine would be a way of targeting this younger group, the same way artists like Ed Sheeran have done.

Half looked for dance/club scenes, which wouldn't work in my genre of music video.
However, half still looked for performance and special effects, which could be used in an acoustic video, especially performance scenes. The use of these conventions may be a way of expanding my target audience to a younger age.

This makes it clear that many people find audience appeal from seeing performance elements in videos, including instruments.

This is something that has inspired me to use as a key part in my music videos, as I think it is an important convention to allow the audience to feel connected to the music which is usually meaningful in this genre.

Ben Howard is an artist who uses the audience appeal of viewing someone play their instruments and sing, so much that there is even a demand for second versions of the music video dedicated to this.

This is data has inspired me to include lots of performance scenes in my music video, as it is clear that the audience enjoy them

The two most common features that the audience expect from an acoustic video is direct address and a story line.

This suggests that many people prefer a hybrid of both performance and narrative when watching an acoustic video as it keeps it more varied and interesting.

When looking at what 'Guitar World' had voted as their top 20 acoustic videos, many of them did include a lot of direct address from the artist when they were in performance scenes.
This emphasizes that many viewers get gratification from direct address as it highlights the artists star persona and creates interest around them.

This has made me defiantly want to build on the performance in my video by including shots of the artist looking directly as the camera as it will appeal to the audience.
I also have been inspired to try and incorporate a story line as many people also seem to be interested in narrative music videos.


3/4 of people feel that a strong artist representation is very important, an 1/4 still think it is slightly important.

This is true when looking at Dyers star theory, as it is also clear there that many people are more interested in viewing an artist if they have a clear persona about them.

Many people online also say in studies that a strong image is very important to them in an artist.

This means that in my music video I need to make sure that my artist has a clear representation, through the use of clothes and facial expressions. I will make sure I focus on this heavily.